Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And I hope that the
Lord will bless you in the study of the scriptures that we're
going to look at. I'll be looking at 1 John chapter 2. I'm doing a series entitled,
The Doing of Righteousness. The Doing of Righteousness. This
is part two. Now, each message will stand
on its own, but I urge you to get the full series. Order it.
We can send it to you on CD or DVD, and study the scriptures. We're studying 1 John, beginning
with chapter 2. Verse 29 is the main text, but
I'm going to show you several passages here in the context. The doing of righteousness. 1
John 2.29. Let's read verse 29 again. It
says in 1 John 2.29, if you know that He is righteous, that's
referring to Christ, that's referring to God in human flesh, Christ. If you know Christ is righteous,
and He is, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born
of Him. One of the evidences of being
born again by the Spirit. Remember Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. One of the evidences of that
in spiritual life is the doing of righteousness. But what does
that mean, doing righteousness? And a lot of people look at that
and they say, well, that's a believer trying to be moral, trying to
be better, trying to be like Christ. Well, believers should
try to be moral, try to be better, try to be like Christ, but they're
still not gonna attain righteousness because righteousness is perfection. in the Bible. Righteousness is
perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. It has to do
with the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is my righteousness and that's
by the grace of God. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So that's the concept
of righteousness. Anything less is sin and that's
why believers rest in Christ as their advocate. As their advocate,
as our advocate, Christ is at the right hand of the Father
making intercession for us, pleading the merits of His blood, His
righteousness alone. And it's not a situation where
he's on his knees pleading all the time, trying to get God to
do something or convince. No, it's just a fact of grace,
that Christ's blood is our forgiveness. Christ's righteousness is our
justification. So what is the doing of righteousness?
Well, now I said last week, I gave you the definition of that, and
then I'm gonna back it up with the scriptures here. The doing
of righteousness has to do with a sinner saved by grace, not
by works, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but saved
by grace, evidenced by his believing in, resting in, and continually
clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ as his only righteousness before
God. You see, I have a righteousness
before God. But it's not me. It's not in
me. It's Christ's righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted, reckoned to me by the grace of God. And therefore I have nothing
to be ashamed of because in Him I have everything, all spiritual
blessings. Now, let me make good on that
with the context. I mentioned last week verse 26
of 1 John 2. John says, these things have
I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. He's talking
about false preachers there that wanted to draw people away from
looking to Christ alone to look to themselves. It's a religious
seduction. In other words, it's kind of
like the Galatian era where Jewish unbelievers came in and said,
yes, we believe salvation by grace. Yes, we believe it's all
Christ, but you have to do something or you have to have something
to make this good, to be holy, to be righteous, to be more saved.
And Paul called it another gospel. Well, these false preachers had
crept into the church and they sought to draw believers, or
professing believers, away from the single look to Jesus Christ
as the single Savior, Lord, and righteousness of His people.
Get your eyes off of Him and onto something else, especially
yourself. Well, they were successful in some areas. There were some
professing believers in this church to whom John's writing.
And this is a general epistle. He's writing to all the true
churches of God. They were successful in drawing
some away from Christ. There were people who were professing
believers, who claimed to have been saved by grace, who claimed
to have been looking to Christ, who left it and followed these
seducers. Now the question is, did they
lose their salvation? Or what happened? The answer
is no, they did not lose their salvation. The answer is they
just simply revealed that they had never been born again. They had never been saved to
begin with because those who do righteousness, they're born
of God. Those who stay with Christ, cling
to Christ continually, they've been born of God. Now, how do
I know that's true? Well, look back at verse 18 of
1 John 2. Now listen to these verses. It
says, little children, it is the last time. Now the last time
or the last age refers to the New Testament time. And actually
it refers to the time that Christ, officially you'd say the time
that Christ died on the cross, was buried, raised again the
third day, and he ascended unto the Father. And this last time,
this New Testament time, this last age was inaugurated, you
might say, at Pentecost when Peter preached in Acts chapter
two. From that time on to the time of Christ's second coming
is the last time. That's the last age. After that,
there'll be no other time. You see, there were different
times in the Old Testament. There was the time of the patriarchs.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Then there was the time of the
Law, the Old Covenant Law, Moses and the Israelites. Now this
is the Old Covenant. Now this is the New Covenant,
the New Testament. So from that time to the time
of His Second Coming is the last time. So John writes in 1 John
2.18, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist
shall come. Now this right here is very informative. Antichrist. What is Antichrist? Well, that means to be against
Christ. Now, he's including these religious
seducers who claim to be Christian. They claim to be Christian, but
they denied the doctrine of Christ. And he says Antichrist shall
come. Even now are there many Antichrist. Many who have that
spirit of Antichrist. Those who claim to be Christians.
And that's what Antichrist is all about. People are looking
for THE Antichrist. Well, John says, this spirit
of Antichrist is already here, whereby we know that it is the
last time. What is Antichrist? Do you know
what Antichrist is? Now listen to me. Antichrist
is false Christianity. That's what Antichrist is. False
Christianity. We didn't talk about that. Sometime
in the future I'll preach to you from 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 where we talk about the man of sin and all of that. But Antichrist
is false Christianity. Well, what is false Christianity?
Well, it's Christian in name only. It's Christianity that
claims to be Christian, but denies the doctrine of Christ. Look
over in 2 John. You know, there's three epistles
here, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. Listen to this in 2 John, in
verse seven of 2 John. John writes here, he says, for
many deceivers, are entered into the world who confess not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." In other words, they were denying
the humanity of Christ. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. So a person who claims to be
a Christian but denies the humanity of Christ, well, that person
is an antichrist. Christ is every bit human without
sin. He wasn't born of man. He was
conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, His
holy humanity. Anyone who denies the humanity
of Christ is anti-Christ. Anyone who denies the deity of
Christ is anti-Christ. You say, well that's hard. Well,
it's true. Christ is both God and man in one person. That's
what the Bible teaches. And so, Antichrist denies either
one or both. Now, another issue is the cross. What did Jesus Christ actually
accomplish on the cross when he died? Did he simply make salvation
available? Or did he secure the salvation
of his people? To say he just made it available
if men will do their part, that's Antichrist. but to say that he
secured the salvation of his people. That's the truth. So
he says there are many antichrists. Verse 8 of 2 John. Look to yourselves
that we lose not those things which we have wrought, that is,
which we have gained, but that we receive a full reward. He's
talking about continuing in the gospel. Now that That is by the
grace of God, because God won't let us go. But look at verse
9. Here's where I wanted to get to, 2nd John. Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Abiding, continuing
in the truth. That's what he's talking about.
Now go back over to 1st John 2. Well, he says in verse 18
that many Antichrist have come. But look at verse 19. Now here's
the key. Remember what we're talking about.
The doing of righteousness has to do with a sinner saved by
grace, born of God, looking to, resting in, and clinging to Christ
for righteousness. He will not stop because of the
grace of God. But he says, verse 19, these
antichrists, they went out from us, verse 19. Do you hear that? They went out from us. They claim
to be Christian. They were with us for a while,
but they went out from us, but they were not of us. Do you hear that? They went out from the body of
Christ, the church, But they really weren't of the body of
Christ, the church. He says, for if they had been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. If they'd
been truly saved, if they'd been truly born of God, and not just
a mere profession, it could be based upon intellectualism, it
could be based upon emotions, It could be based upon experiences,
but it wasn't the work of the Holy Spirit to bring them to
Christ. If they had been of us, he says, they would no doubt
have continued with us. But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. They were never
saved. These people going around saying
you can be saved one day and then lost the next, or you can
lose that salvation. You know why they believe that?
It's because they don't believe salvation totally 100% by grace
through the righteousness of another. That's anti-Christ. Those who don't believe. And
their excuse, and their accusation, they have an excuse and an accusation.
The excuse and accusation goes like this, well, if I believed
that I couldn't lose it, I'd just sin all I want to. Well,
go ahead and sin all you want to. But that's not Christianity. And that's not grace. You see,
grace gives us a heart. Grace gives a sinner, not only
a righteousness through Christ, but also in the new birth, a
heart to love God and to love others and to obey God, not in
order to be righteous, but because we already are in Christ. And
if you don't have that heart, then nothing I can do for you. I just preach the gospel to you
and pray for your salvation. Well, in 1 John 2, 19, he said,
they went out from us. They weren't of us. And they
went out from us so that it might be made known that they weren't
real Christians. They weren't true Christians.
They were never saved. They were never born again. Now
look at verse 20 of 1 John 2. He says, but, now remember what
I said, you know, those who say, well, I just sin all I want.
No, he says in verse 20, but you have an unction from the
Holy One and you know all things, you know better. That's what
that means. That unction is an anointing. Well, what is the
anointing? That's the new birth by the Holy
Spirit. where he gives spiritual life
to a dead sinner, spiritually dead sinner. He gives you eyes
to see, ears to hear, a heart, a new heart. Jeremiah spoke of
it in Jeremiah 31, and then later on again, Jeremiah 32 and 33. He said, God said, I'm gonna
give them a new heart. I'm gonna give them a new mind,
a new will, a new desire. Now they still have the old desires
of sin. Paul wrote about that in Romans
7. And there's a war, there's a battle. But if you're a true
Christian, justified based on the imputed righteousness of
Christ, that imputed righteousness that is charged to your account
is not only the ground of your justification, it's the source
and power of your regeneration, the new birth. You see, where
sin demanded death, grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. So if you're justified based
on the righteousness of Christ imputed, at some point in time
you'll be born again. You'll be given life within,
a new heart, a new mind, new affections, new will, a cleared
conscience, cleared by the blood of Christ. and you'll have a
desire to obey God. It won't give you an excuse to
sin. You don't need an excuse. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
I don't need an excuse to sin. I'm a sinner, but I'm saved by
the grace of God. I'm commanded by God to fight
sin, to war against it. Again, not in order to be saved
or even to be kept saved, but because I already am saved and
kept saved by the grace of God in Christ. You see that? Well,
he says in verse 20, you have an unction, an anointing. You
see, those who went out from us, he says, they didn't have
that anointing. That means they were never, they didn't have
that unction. They were never born again by the Spirit. They
had a profession of faith. They may have had a dream or
a vision. They may have gotten real emotional and walked an
aisle and made a profession and got baptized. But the one thing
they didn't have is the Holy Spirit's work in the new birth. How do you know they didn't have
that? Looked like they had it. You know, I hear people say all
the time, I know that person was saved because they quit this
or quit that. My friend, read the Bible. Listen, false professions of
faith can bring about great reformations of life outwardly. Only God the
Holy Spirit through Christ can give a new heart, a new mind. So how do you know that they
didn't have this unction? John says, because they went
out from us. They left the gospel. They denied their profession.
They claim to believe in Christ, but they don't believe in Christ,
never have. It was just an outward profession of hypocrisy. And
so he says, you have an unction from the Holy One. Who's the
Holy One? That's Christ. Christ is the creator, the giver,
and the sustainer of life. How in the world can a spiritually
dead sinner have life? It's only as Christ gives it
by the power of the Spirit. And in that, he regenerates a
person. He births them again. And the evidence of that is they
receive Christ, they believe in him, and they stay with him.
And so he says, you know all things. That means all things
pertaining to salvation. That doesn't mean when you're
born again, you're a know-it-all. There's a lot of things we don't
know. We're continually learning. But we know what it takes for
God to save a sinner. We know what reconciles God to
sinners and sinners to God. We know the gospel. We know the
righteousness of God. Now look at verse 21 of 1 John
2. He says, I have not written unto
you because you know not the truth, but because you know it,
and that no lie is of the truth. When these seducers come along,
you see, and preach their lies under the guise of good works
or under the guise of holiness, You know better, you know the
truth, and you know that their lie is not of the truth. You
see, anything that takes a person's eyes off of Christ as their only
righteousness before God is a lie and not of the truth. People
today, they talk about imparted righteousness or infused righteousness. Oh, I have something in me that
is uncontaminated, cannot sin, My friend, that's a lie, and
it's not of the truth. Yes, a believer is born of God.
He has a new heart, new mind, new affections, and new will,
but sin still contaminates everything we do. Somebody says, well, I
love God. Well, I can say that truly, but
do I love him perfectly? No, because I struggle with self-love,
selfishness. Is my love for God the ground
of my salvation? No, it's His love for me. Does
my love for God equal Christ's love for His Father? No, it falls
short. So my righteousness is in Christ. My desire is to be like Him. That's the case. So no lies of
the truth, verse 22 of 1 John 2. who is a liar, but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ, he is an antichrist that denieth
the Father and the Son. Those, what he's saying here
is this, those who do not see Christ in the glory of his person,
God in human flesh, and in the power of his finished work to
secure and demand the salvation of everyone, every sinner for
whom he died, and was buried and raised again, all whom the
Father had given Him before the foundation of the world. They're
denying that He is the Messiah. And therefore, they deny the
Father and the Son. You see, you cannot believe in
the Father apart from the Son. So verse 23 says, whosoever denieth
the Son, the same hath not the Father. Now, the next line is
in parentheses. And in the King James version,
what that indicates is that this was not found in the original
manuscript, but added by the King James translators. And here's
what it says, read the whole verse in verse 23. Whosoever
denieth the son, the same hath not the father, but he that acknowledgeth
the son hath the father also. Now what's going on there is
that the King James translators took the negative, and put it
against the positive by implication. And there's nothing wrong with
that. But look at it, it says, whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father. If you deny Christ, you don't
have the Father, you're not of God. You see, the Bible says
you're of your father, the devil. But on the opposite, in the positive,
those who acknowledge the Son, who believe in the Son, they
have the Father also. And that's true. So look at verse
24. Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard
from the beginning. If that which you have heard
from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue
in the Son and in the Father. What's he talking about? Well,
he's talking about the Holy Spirit's work in the new birth. That which
abides in you. The word abide means to continue.
to persist, to endure. And he says, this is the work
of the Holy Spirit. And it abides in those who have
been born again. Now some people say, well, it
says, let that therefore abide in you, which you've heard. See,
you can let it or you cannot let it. That's not what it's
saying at all. The English translation sometimes
seems to indicate that. But what he's telling the people
of God is this, if God the Holy Spirit has done a work within
you, given you a new heart, a new mind, if he's written the word
of God on your heart, then in your mind, make it your determination
to abide therein. And there's nothing wrong, he's
not saying that that's a condition you must meet in order to stay
saved, because that would be impossible. He's simply saying
that he's given you that mind to persist. And he says, listen,
he says, if that which you have heard from the beginning shall
remain in you, if it remains, here's how you know, you'll continue
in the Son and in the Father. You'll continue looking to Christ.
You'll continue coming to the Father by His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is the way. Christ is
the truth. Christ is the life. No man comes
unto the Father but by Him. How can you have any acceptance
with or fellowship with a holy God when you're a sinner? There's only one way. And that's
on the ground of righteousness in Christ. righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to you. And verse 25 says, and this is
the promise that he has promised us even eternal life. You see,
it's not temporary life. It's not life you have one day,
or one week, or one month, or one year, and then life you don't
have the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year.
It's eternal life. And it's all based upon what
Christ accomplished. It's not based upon what I do
or what you do. But that life does determine
and influence and evidence itself by what I do and what we do.
And that is in continuing in the Son. Verse 26, these things
have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. In verse
27, He goes on talking about that anointing and we'll pick
up there next week and I hope you'll join us next week for
another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.